A Tale of Faith
by TevenB
Summary: An old acquaintance pulls Faith through time for a mission only she can accomplish.My first attempt at a fanfiction.Both positive and negative reviews welcome.
1. Prologue

Author's Note: My first attempt at a fanfic.I Don't own anything from the show. Reviews appreciated.

A Tale of Faith

"_Nobody knows what you are. Not even you, little Miss Seen-it-all. The Ascension isn't just my day. It's yours too; your day to blossom, to show the world what a powerful girl you are. I think of what you've done, what I know you will do. No father could be prouder"._

"_I hope I don't let you down."_

Prologue

An old man walked the perimeter while the mages did their work. There were five robed figures sitting on the outskirts of a large circle. They were chanting a language that was unknown to him.

_Faith: Come to get me? You gonna feed me to Angel? You know you're not going to take me alive.  
Buffy: Not a problem.  
Faith: Well, look at you. All dressed up in big sister's clothes.  
Buffy: You told me I was just like you. That I was holding it in.  
They approach until they're standing face to face.  
Faith: Ready to cut loose?  
Buffy: Try me.  
Faith: Okay then. Give us a kiss._

_Buffy punches her in the jaw._

In the center of the circle laid a small figurine tied to a blood stained blade. He sighed to himself regretfully. He still wished it had not come to this, but there were no other options.

_They fight for a while.  
Faith: Not getting tired are you? I'm just starting to feel it.  
They fight some more. They fall together through a window, landing on a terrace. While Faith is recovering from the fall, Buffy handcuffs Faith's right wrist to Buffy's right wrist.  
Buffy: Stick around._

_The fight continues_

The man felt a gentle tap on his shoulder, shaking him from his musings. There was no time to back out now. A deal was a deal. Now all that was left to do was hope that he wasn't about to make a terrible mistake. He walks away from the main work area and heads into the shadows of the room. With a nod to the head caster he signals for the spell to begin in earnest. The chanting picks up, driven with a sudden intensity that wasn't there before. The air in the room seems to crackle. In unison all five of the spell casters reached to their sides where sealed vials had lain. One by one going around the circle each slammed their glass vial into the ground In front of them releasing colorful grains. Impossibly, instead of the contents staying were they fell they all seemingly crawled toward the objects in the center. Once they reach the center they begin to swirl around the doll mixing in a sea of colors. Faster they swirl together until the figure is completely unable to be seen.

_Faith spins Buffy so she can get the leverage to use her legs and manages to snap the handcuff chain. They face off. Faith holds a length of pipe. Buffy pulls out Faith's knife.  
Faith: That's mine.  
Buffy: You're about to get it back.  
They exchange blows, Faith dodging the knife. They move to the edge of the terrace and Faith holds Buffy at the edge.  
Faith: Man, I'm going to miss this.  
Buffy breaks Faith's grip and plunges the knife into Faith's abdomen. Both of them looked stunned for a moment.  
Faith: (weakly, but smiling) You did it.  
Faith throws Buffy away from her.  
Faith: You killed me.  
Faith climbs onto the low wall at the edge of the terrace and looks down.  
Faith: Still won't help your boy, though. Shoulda been there, B, quite a ride.  
Faith falls backward off the wall_

The ingredients become airborne lifting up the doll and knife with it. The colors of the ingredients bleed into the doll, leaving only glowing white swirling spots. The spots then begin to glow brighter, to the point where it hurt to look at them. The old man was forced to look away. The volume of the robed figures' chanting had risen during this time. At the moment they were currently yelling their chant. With one last utterance they all stopped abruptly. The old figure looked up to see that the spots, and the figurine with them, had disappeared from the center of the circle. For about 15 seconds his stomach dropped. It looked like the spell has failed. 17 seconds after the chanting had stopped the room filled with a blinding white light. When his vision cleared the old man looked into the center of the circle and saw a female figure. Naked she lay sprawled face down; her hair draped messily covering her face. Around her the once colorful ingredients-turned white spots now lay in their charred final form, what appeared to the unknowing eye to be black sand

The room fell fallen silent until the women stirred and looked around. "Miss?" the head spell caster called He called out half in concern, half out of curiosity to see if his amazing feet had actually been successful. "Miss Summers?" still no response from the figure. "Buffy?" The figure first went stock still then turned on the caster with an unreadable look in her eye.

The moment hung in the air uncomfortably. The old man, snapping out of his shock chose then to cut in. "I thank you all for you services, but now it is quite important that you leave the two of us alone." The five mages just looked at the man. Surprised and possibly a little offended at his crassness. "Now!" the old man stated with impatience. The five robed figures groggily got to their feet and headed out of the room a few brislings at the disrespect. Others just were gleefully chatting about what they had just done. A male voice could be heard from the hallway calling to them. "If you follow me, I'll happily pay you for your services as agreed upon; also I have been asked to remind you all that if any of you break your oath of silence and ever speak of what you just did or saw in that room you'll die a horrible painful death. This way please."

When the sounds of footsteps had disappeared the old man turned his attention back to the nude woman, more accurately the nude girl, in front of him. Trying on his best unthreatening smile he greeted his guest warmly. "I'm sorry about all this confusion with those guys. They can be a little much to deal with sometimes and this time I just couldn't afford to let them know too much." The girl just stared at him blankly. "But enough about them, you're probably confused enough as it is. Well let me get on with it then. First I would like to sincerely welcome you, to my home Faith, The vampire slayer."

The Dark-haired girl opened her mouth to say something but then closed it again. Then opened it once more "Am I…? I mean..is this? Am I dead?"


	2. Chapter 1

A Tale of Faith

Part 1

With a blinding flash of light the young women fell into the center of the circle. Dazed for a few seconds she just lay where she fell. "Looks like that's it, she killed me." She expected unconsciousness to follow her fall, but it was not forthcoming. The woman realized that something wasn't right. [Where is the pain? She looked down at her self [for that matter where is the knife wound, or my tattoo. or my clothes? she looked up around her. There were five robed figures and something like black sand surrounding her. She may not have always been he brightest of crayons in the box but she knew sinister when she saw it, and this scene was defiantly not wholesome. Since she was for sure not in that truck she had planned on landing in and that only left one other option in her mind. She was dead and this was her great beyond, and since darkly robed figures and black sand didn't exactly paint a heavenly picture she must have been sent to the other place. It's not like she wasn't on some level expecting this, she knew that killing those people and trying to help a guy turn into a big demon thing didn't exactly put her in the positive column, but she'd be dammed if the realization didn't sting a little.

"Buffy?" the woman snapped towards the voice, she hadn't even realized that one of the robed guys was saying something to her. She was filled with differing emotions hearing that name. Sadness was there, regret, and little bit of disbelief, but mostly rage. She was definitely feeling rage in a big way. A man she hadn't noticed before spoke up. He told the robed guys to get lost, in so many words. She figured him to be the big boss man of this place. He was standing in the shadows of the room, that coupled with the fact that she was near a candle and her eyes weren't adjusting well added to her not being able to see him very well. From what she could see he looked pretty old. [I guess that makes since, him being who he is and all, I'm a little disappointed though. I kind of expected him to be...sexier, I wonder if I could take him in a fight.. Her thoughts were interrupted when the figure spoke once more. He rambled on about something inane and she just looked at him. Eventually though, she heard her name. He even added her title to the end. "Faith The vampire slayer." The old man said this without sounding the least bit frightened. That didn't bode well fore her bid as the queen of the underworld. Fear began to well up inside her, as the shock of the situation began to wear off. She finally found her voice.

"Am I…? I mean. Is this? Am I dead?" It came out sounding mortifyingly little girlish. Faith kicked herself mentally.

"No Faith. I know this situation may look strange, well strange by non-Hellmouth standards. But I assure you that you are very much alive. I had you, I guess, summoned is the best word to use here."

"Ohh, okay cool." Faith said with a sigh of relief and visibly relaxing. But then confusion set in. "Wait? Summoned me? What are you some dirty old man with a thing for teenage girls? Thought you'd summon a slayer to get your kink on?"

"What? No, nothing like that, why would you-" The man cut himself off when he realized the girl's nakedness that had somehow gone unregistered for this long. Faith had been so casual about it that it hadn't really occurred to him. "Oh!" he quickly grabbed a satchel that was at his side and threw it to the girl. "There are cloths in there .Your umm, nudeness is an effect of the spell. Sorry about that I hadn't even realized-"

"Yeah I bet" Faith interrupted while rolling her eyes. She got dressed into a into a large brown tee-shirt with a picture of a red cardinal on it and a pair of baggy blue jeans, luckily there was a belt. The fashion disaster was complete with a pair of black flip lop sandals.

"Sorry if those aren't exactly your style. We didn't exactly have you measurements so we just pieced you something together from what we had lying around. At least they're clean." The old man offered as an explanation.

'Wow, you defiantly know how to treat a girl." Faith said sarcastically. Suddenly she became serious "Listen Jack, I don't know why you summoned me and fankly I don't give a damn. All I know is that you better have those robed guys sprinkle there fairy dust or whatever and send me back to Sunnydale. I have a graduation to get ready for tomorrow and some serious payback to dish out. So unless you want to become real well acquainted with my fist I suggest you hop to it."

The old man sighed "Faith that is impossible. The spell was a one way summon. And even if I could send you to Sunnydale all you would find there would be a gaping hole. Sunnydale hasn't existed for over 60 years. Sunnydale high school even longer then that.

"So the boss's ascension was a success? Good for him."

"No, the mayor's ascension was stopped, and the mayor himself was defeated. The destruction of Sunnydale was due to other circumstances."

Sadness and regret welled up in Faith again but this time for different reasons. So The Mayor had been beaten. She didn't have to exactly wrack her brain to guess by whom. [If only I had been there, I could have done something. Now all that's left is some 60 year old hole where his town had been. Faith felt like crumbling. She once again had failed someone who had counted on her, who had cared about her. She was going to make Buffy pay for this. The only comfort she took was in knowing without Slayer blood Buffy's vampire boy-toy was dust in the wind. "Wait a minute! 60 years?"


	3. Chapter 2

A Tale of Faith

"That's right Faith. Its been more than 60 years since The Mayor was stopped." The man now stood explaining to the girl. He had known that this would be difficult he just hoped he could get through to her "The world as you remember it has changed drastically."

Faith just shook her head. "You're lying. I was just… Buffy was. What the hell is going on?"

"It's complicated. The world has had some key supernatural occurrences since you last remember. More then just run of the mill apocalypses from Sunnydale. Full scale wars where evil incarnate itself came out to play. The slayer line was tampered with, manipulated to fight the evil in the world but that caused imbalance. A being that knew how to use that imbalance in its favor launched an attack to once again bring hell to earth."

"I hate to burst you bubble, guy, but that pretty much sounds like the same old apocalypse to me."

"Well it wasn't, this was different. An army arose under this being. Demons, vampires, humans. All banding together toward the goal of complete sovereignty for evil. greed, murder, and terror followed in their wake. They thought that they were the end, the worse of the worst, but they were wrong. Every soul that was taken by this army was used to feed something much worse. The release of ..creatures far more absolute in their thinking. They sought to do nothing more then to end this reality. Any being that existed was unworthy in their eyes. They were the supreme beings and they alone would exist while everything else would die. They were never freed though. The side of good also had an army. Every being that the powers that be dubbed a champion was to fight. This fighting went on for 20 years, until the side of good found a way to win. The supernatural balance of good an evil had to be set clean. To go back to zero. One last battle took place a couple of miles away from what had once been Sunnydale. In that battle the army of good commited the greastest sacrifices. I wasn't there. And everyone who was there was no longer heard from. Notes left behind indicate that the being that controlled the evil army had somehow found a way to open up a portal large enough for the old ones to get to this reality through. Through some. I don't know interference from the side of good the portal didn't work as intended instead of letting the evil out the portal sucked everything in. thousands of warriors, from the side of both good and evil were gone in minutes. Afterwards all evidence of the battle disappeared hellmouths closed, and the powers that be cut all ties to this world. And for the last 40 years humanity has not been bothered by the supernatural world. The vampires that had not fought went into hiding. And a new slayer hasn't been called since.." the old man stopped and looked down, Faith could tell that he had gotton watery from the sound of his voice during his little tale.

She crossed her arms across her chest. "Riveting stuff, but I don't see how some plot from a Disney movie connects with me winding up 60 years in the future".

"Like I said" the old man continues "I was not at this battle,"

"Why not? If this was a big evil jamboree like you make it sound then why didn't you fight.?" Her mouth turned into a smirk." Did you hide? Did you let the real hero's do the work while you cowered?"

'Shut up!" said the old man harshly "I was in the battle along every step of the way until the end. I would have gladly given my life for the cause, but there were other factors present and when the time came I was….it's not important. ", he sighed a tension filled sigh and Faith noticed his fists were clenched. "After the dust settled I took it upon myself to oversee that the world would be forewarned if any big evil was to become active, and now evil has. Under our feet a hellmouth has become active once more. At the same time the vampire population began to rise in the area Me and a few good men have made it our duty to protect the people on this hellmouth, but as the vampires numbers swell our efforts are growing more and more useless. We needed a slayer. This is the part where things get strange. A cult has risen recently calling itself the "wings of destiny." Lead by a woman only a little older then yourself who claims that she has supernatural powers and visions."

"So that sounds like that's your girl." Faith says

"I would agree, but every person I send to talk to her comes up missing. I can't send any more of my men; our numbers are too small to as is. So that is where you come in.

"So you want me to go get this chick for you?"

"No, right now the top priority, the reason why you were brought here is to protect the people on this hellmouth. The mystery of this possible slayer will have to wait."

"So let me get this strait. You expect me to play nice for the council until you can get your mits on this other chick?' I don't think you know who you're talking to. I'm Faith. I think Buffy is the one you're after."

"I know who you are Faith, I might even know you better then you do right now."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

The old man was silent for a moment. "I mean that I have records. From what you have said it seems like your last memories are when you and Buffy fought in your apartment, in June 1999."

"Yeah, little Miss Summers came after my blood. And then she killed me."

"But you didn't die there Faith, that is just the beginning of your story. Buffy summers put you in a coma, that's true, but you woke up. And you went through some things but you were helped. You helped save the world twice the same year in 2003, and countless other times after that. You became a loyal, and talented warrior Faith. And that is why I am asking for your help."

Faith laughed, hard. "Wow, you really had me going there for a minute, maybe you should look into writing kids books. "

"It's the truth Faith."

"Is that so? Well then tell me this Dr. Seuss. When I first showed up why did those robed guys think I was Buffy summers?"

"Because that is what I told them. You have to understand what they did is probably the most potent magic done in the last 40 years. They would only be willing to try if they thought it was …her."

"I got ya, so no matter how loyal and talented I become. or is it became? Golden slayer Buff is the slayer preferred 9 time out of 10"

"That's true. I won't deny that much. But here is your chance to come in first Faith. The decision you make here may possible decide if this town survives or not."

"Yeah, well my prayers go out to this town. You can tell the council that next time it plucks some slayer out of time, they might want to pick one they haven't screwed over so many times."

"The council no longer exists; it crumbled a very long time ago. All I'm doing is asking your help. You're not a prisoner and I can't keep you here. You're free to go whenever you like…" the man was interrupted buy the sound of the door slamming as Faith walked out.

"I wasn't finished!" when it becomes clear that Faith wasn't coming back he sighed" Note to self: less talk."

A minute later the door reopens and a blond boy comes in. "I paid the magic guys and they all cleared out. But I just saw a girl storm out of here. Was that her?"

"Yep, that was this town's only hope. Could you follow her? Make sure she doesn't get into any trouble, maybe even try to convincer her to come back."

"Yeah no problem" the male nodded

"And Grant, Don't tell her your last name."


	4. Chapter 3

A Tale of Faith

Faith walked down that appeared to be the business district of where ever it was she was at. Right now she was trying to sort out her thoughts. Get a game plan or something. She had left that mansion of a place 20 minutes ago. She had gotten lost twice before she had gotten out, but once she had gotten out she was truly impressed. [Damn and I thought B was living large. She had picked a direction and started walking, just intent on getting away. She decided that the best course of action was to find a bus station or a train yard. Of course she didn't have any money. So the first course of action was to find someone to mug. Faith shivered. She was defiantly not in California anymore; it never got this cold. [Well except that one time when it snowed, that was pretty cool.

The cold weather reminded her of Boston which didn't go any further in raising her mood.[ makes since I'm thinking of that place though. I didn't have squat then and I don't have squat now. She shivered again [note to self: mug someone with a warm coat. Despite the cold weather there were plenty of people on the streets. All she had to do was to find someone alone or near a dark alley. She sighed; when she had woken up this morning, she had not expected her day to end up like this. She figured it was just her luck though. Whenever her life seemed like it was going good, something happened to shoot it all to hell. First with her watcher, then with Buffy, now the mayor was gone. She looked around at all the smiling happy people, they made her sick. Faith thought for a moment. Maybe that old guy was lying, maybe he was just trying to stop her from getting to the ascension. Things around her didn't look that different. Yeah all the cars looked different, and looking into the store windows she passed she didn't see anything she recognized but that could be…" she stopped her line of thinking. She had never been one for delusions. She didn't have any concrete evidence but she knew it, she could feel it. The world had changed.

For a while she just let her feet carry her, she didn't know where she was going but she just let then take her where they may. When she finally snapped out of her daze she found herself outside a huge building with loud pulsing music coming from it. Faith's mood picked up a little. [Good to know that some things haven't changed Faith heard a very familiar pair of footsteps behind her. She knew she had been followed ever since she had left that place. She figured that if she kept walking far enough the old man would eventually tire out. But apparently he was a stubborn old bastard; well Faith at least hoped he had some cash on him. Faith turned around, but behind her she didn't find the old man from before, she found a kid, Blond, a little taller. Around her age a little older maybe, who looked very much like he had been caught sneaking cookies out of the cookie jar before dinner.

[God, I always sucked at stealth was the only thought in his head when the girl he had been following turn around on him unexpectedly. For a moment he had considered trying to play it off and maybe keep walking but then she spoke.

"You've been following me right?"

"Uhh, yeah." He said sheepishly. Fitting since at the moment he felt very much like a sheep heading for the slaughter, or was that lamb? Was there a difference?

"Buy me a drink" Faith said gesturing to the club behind her.

"Umm okay" he answered dumbly. That wasn't the response he had expected but at least she wasn't A) running away or B) beating him up.

Together they walked towards the entrance. He stole a glance at her and again at the risk of being pummeled he thought he'd mention. "You sure you want to go in looking like that?" he wasn't trying to be rude but with the outfit she had on she didn't exactly look like she was ready to party, she looked like she was ready to go work construction

Faith looked down at herself. "I see you point" she grabbed the bottom of the large brown shirt she was wearing and tied it into a knot exposing her midrift, then she rippeded the collar of the shirt and ripped it a little exposing more cleavage then he felt was absolutely necessary. 'Better?" she said with a sexy smirk.

'Yeah" he said tightly, diverting his eyes.

"Just can't beat that 90's ingenuity" as they got closer to the entrance Faith noticed the bouncer checking out people's I.D. before they entered the club. "That going to be a problem?" She asked looking toward the bouncer.

"Nah" He answered. When they went to enter the club, he just nodded at the bouncer and was let in. "I'm kind of a regular here" he said when he noticed Faith's look.

'Check out the party boy." Said Faith smirking

"It's not like that," they made there way to a table. "I'll get us something to drink" he said and left the table.

When he returned he was glad to see that Faith was still there. Faith took her drink and tasted a little, tentivly. [Probably making sure there aren't any tranquilizers in it, she really doesn't trust us.

"You know, when I said buy me a drink, I was thinking something more of the alcoholic variety." Faith said

"Sorry, no can do. I told you, I'm a regular here. If my grandpa found out I was drinking, I'd probably be shipped off to some boarding school in Europe by sun-up."

"That old guy, from that place, he's your grandfather?"

[Oopps, wasn't suppose to say that "Yeah," he said looking into his drink

Luckily Faith seemed to drop it at that. They sat in silence for a little while, Faith watched the floor. And he watched faith. He didn't even realize it but he couldn't take his eyes off her.

"Okay why are you staring at me like that?"

Snapping out of his daze he straitened up. "Sorry, it's just that you're her. You're the Slayer. I wasn't born when the last of them disappeared. I've heard stories though, but I've never met one. Up close. You look so..normal"

Faith took another sip of her drink and continued watching the floor. "Sure, now I do. But you should see me in a fight. I grow about a foot taller and gain about 100 pounds in muscle mass."

"What? Really? No one ever told me that before. Wow that's really.." Then the realization dawned on him "Oh, your yanking my chain isn't you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" She deadpanned

"I kind of hope I get to find out. This place. It's crawling with vampires"

'Yeah I noticed. I counted 5 on the way in."

"I'm not just talking about in here; I'm talking about this whole town. That's why we need you,. The stories I've heard about you make you sound like a superhero." He paused ".you counted 5 on the way in? I only saw--"

"Yeah that's me all right, a super hero" Faith said into her cup still facing the crowded dance floor "I'm not Buffy"

"I know your not." He said quickly. Which made Faith give him a look. He squirmed a little under the glaze "I umm mean, well I've seen pictures" he squirmed some more. He knew he couldn't give anything away.

Faith made a sound that sounded like a laugh but it was hard to tell. 'Figures, B's probably got her face in all kinds of books by now. Does she have one of those bronze statue things somewhere?" Faith turned around to see the boy averting her glaze .Faith gave him a hard look. "You know you remind me of some--"

"Listen, I know you're Faith. My grandpa told me about how you went through some bad stuff, but then you got over it. It doesn't matter what you say Faith. From what he said I can tell you that that you're a hero"

Faith got angry "No, some chick who woke up from a comma is a hero. I'm the Faith who kills people, and tried to help someone end the world. You don't know me; you don't know anything about me." Faith got up and made her way out of the club.

By the time Grant was able to get outside she was no where in site. He heard a noise that sounded like it was coming from behind the club and ran towards it. As he neared the spot where he thought he had heard the noise he heard a voice calling his name. He let out a frustrates sigh and turned around.

"Well well well, if it isn't my favorite white hat." A toothy vampires wearing flannel said with a grin.

"Hey Gus, how's being undead treating you?"

"I told you" the vampire snarled "Gus was my human name, my vampire name is Romulus"

"Whatever Gus, listen I really don't have time for this, so you lucked out today. I'm kind of in the middle of something."

The vampire smirked. "Oh, yeah, that girl you were with. Were you on a date? Well I just find that precious. You know every time you come here your usually with that dark haired guy. Now I don't want to insinuate but well, the underworld was beginning to talk.."

"He's my brother!" Grant said with a grossed out expression.

"Hey, hey don't get so defensive." The vampire said holding his hands up. "Whatever you and that pretty little brother of yours do behind closed doors is none of my business."

"You know what, Gus. All of I sudden I feel like I got all the time in the world. Not that this is going to very long" Grant stepped up to the vampire.

The vampire became very serious "That is no way to talk to a Master Vampire, boy. I'm just going to have to teach you some respect"

Grant laughed. "You, a Master vampire? What kind of lame-ass vampire would follow you?"

"Oh they'll follow me all right. Especially when they find out I killed you."

"When this fight is over, you're not going to be fit to be the Master of an ashtray"

"Big talk for someone surrounded 5 to one" the vampire smiled.

Grant looked around and saw the vampires all coming out from where they had been hiding before. He was in-fact surrounded. And although it really wasn't his biggest concern right now he just had to get one last barb in, even in the face of his most likely gruesome demise.

"There are only 4 of you out here, you hick moron."

Faith exited the club. She was pretty tired of people telling her that they knew who she was. Damn it she didn't even know who she was. She heard a scream coming from behind the club. She looked around at all the people standing around her. They seemed not to notice. They all just went about there business like nothing had happened. Faith was about to do the same when she heard it again. [What the hell she thought [I could go for some violence right about now. And besides afterwards I can mug the victim. Is a double win situation. Faith ran towards the voice and found a vampire toying with a struggling girl.

"Well someone's mom never taught them about playing with their food." Faith said. To her annoyance the vampire payed her no mind.

"Hey!" she said clubbing the back of his head with her fist. That got his attention. He lunged at her. She kneed him in the chest mid lunge and brought her elbow to the back of his neck. "This is going to be too easy. You're nothing but a disappointment." After the vampire had gotten back to his feet she did a spin kick to knock him back down but to her surprise he caught her leg. And threw her like a rag doll into a the club's brick wall. She looked around the alley for a weapon but the street was spotless, not a sharp object or a scrap piece of wood to be found. The vampire lowered himself onto Faith. Fangs barred. She tried to push him off but he was a bulky guy and she was at a weird angel. With only one thing left to do she reached up grabbed both sides of his head and turned as hard as she could. With a satisfying snap the vampire went down. But not to dust. She got up and went over to the victim who was a mess, crying on the ground.

"Hey, do you have any like sharp objects or wood in your purse?"

the girl just stared at Faith. "Thank you so much. He was going to..." "

Faith shifted uncomfortably "Yeah, whatever"

Faith looked around and saw a dumpster and was struck with an idea. She had a theory that she had always wanted to test out. She dragged the vampire's unconscious body in front of the dumpster. Se then tilted the dumpster onto the vampire's head, right as it sprang back to consciousness. With a loud crash the vampire was dusted. "Beheadtion by crushing, a little louder then necessary but, hey girls gotta do what a girl's gotta…"Faith realized she was alone in the alley, apparently the girl had run away. Faith sighed. So much for her plans for petty theft. "She probably didn't have anything good anyway." Faith saw a pool stick among the newly spilled out garbage and grabbed it. Just incase she ran into anymore vampire trouble. Faith turned around to head back to the main street when she heard voices around the corner. She peeked out and saw the guy from before talking to a vampire. She watched the whole thing. He didn't seem to be in to much danger. There was something about this guy, he was just so familiar. She knew they couldn't have met before but still it was bugging her. Faith watched as 3 more vampires came out of hiding. And saw the guy put on a brave face. Watched as the blond stuck his ground and offered one last barb in the face of danger. It was then that Faith realized who this kid reminded her of, and boy was she pissed.

Faith dashed forward, steamrolling one of the vamps, sending it flying. Everyone paused and took a moment to look at her. The blond guy recovered first through and staked the vampire he had been talking to. Faith went to work on the other three vamps finishing them in short order. The guy came toward her. "That was amazing…"he started to say before Faith decked him in the jaw hard enough to send him to the ground.

"Give me you wallet."

"You're mugging me?" the guy asked surprised, rubbing his jaw.

Faith kicked him in the stomach, reached down and took it from him. She flipped through it until she found what she was looking for. The guy's I.D. Not the name she was expecting to see but still familiar. Then it dawned on her.

If these people thought she was a hero then she was just going to have to show them how bad she really was. With that she took off running.

The old man sat in main hall, waiting for his grandson to return. He sat drinking tea. He wasn't even that fond of tea really but he remembered something an old friend had once said to him. About tea being calming and he defiantly needed to be calm right now. He heard the footsteps approaching the door. He sat his cup down walking forward and opened the door. "Your back", he smiled." I was hoping.." he was cut by the hand grabbing his throat.

"Yeah well the thing is I wasn't going to, come back I mean. But then I found out that if I did I would be leaving with out saying goodbye to an old friend." She looked the man over and laughed a little"I mean really old. That would just have been rude. Wouldn't it have been Xander?"


	5. Chapter 4

A Tale of Faith

Faith gave Xander the once over. "I'm digging the dark suite, eye patch combo. Very Falcon Seven of you."

"Faith you don't have to do this." Xander managed to say with difficulty due to the hand around his throat.

"No, you see I really do. Kinda like payback. Buffy killed someone close to me I kill someone close to Buffy. Poetic justice or something like that."

"Faith, Buffy is dead. Things are different now. You don't have to go down this road again."

Faith squeezed the throat in her hand harder. "No more talking. You're spoiling the moment."

Behind her a voice sounded. "Let him go!"

Faith turned around, and faced another guy. Dark hair, younger then the one from before. More importantly he was pointing a shotgun at her. She brought her captive closer to her face. "We'll get back to this later.", and threw him across the room. Turning back to gunboy, she gave him a little smile. "Now, now. Youngsters shouldn't play with grownup toys. I'd put that down if I were you. You might hurt yourself"

A shot was fired and it was dangerously close to Faith's head. She was pretty sure hair was singed. "Don't worry, I'm experienced." The boy said returning her smile.

"I see," Faith boldly took a step forward "You didn't go for the kill shot though, which makes me think that you don't really plan on hurting me. Pity." Faith lunged at the guy faster then humanly possible and grabbed the shotgun. He turned it and nailed Faith in the jaw with the handle. She yanked it out of his hands and sent it skidding across the floor. The guy responded with 2 punches to her face. And a knee to her stomach. He brought a leg up to kick her but she caught it. "Hey, you got some moves on you" she grabbed him and picked him up, "But I", then slammed him on the ground hard "have supper powers"

Grant limped after Faith but the girl was too fast. He got home and saw the front door wide open. [Never a good sign He cautiously entered to find his grandfather laying on a wall unconscious but still breathing. More troubling was the action in the middle of the room. Faith was straddling someone on the ground punching them relentlessly even though at this point the figure was way beyond the point of being able to fight back. Finding the shotgun on the ground he grabbed it and got closer to Faith who was far more involved in the punching then what was going on in the room around her. Getting close he saw she was a mess. Sobbing with each punch, muttering something either to the unconscious guy or to herself. He was tempted to try to comfort her until he got a good look at the figure she was punching. At this point he was bruised and bloody but that was his brother. Using all the strength he could muster he brought the shotgun down onto the back of Faith's head knocking her out. He pushed her off his brother.

"Alex? Hey you in there? He asked panicked, his brother did not look good. Grant almost jumped out of his skin when the figure's eyes opened and smiled at him painfully.

"God, it took you long enough" Alex said jokingly, in a weak voice. Grant finally breathed and just smiled at his little brother.Helping Alex up to his feet.Grant looked down at Faith.

"What should we do about her?"

Alex reached into his pocket and retrieved a syringe. He bent down carefully and stuck it into Faith's arm. Getting back up he leaned into his brother for support. He felt dangerously close to unconsciousness. "I have no idea."

Faith woke up in a tiny room. Grey walls. The door and windows were barred and the only furniture was a grey bench and chains attached to the ceiling. The later she was currently incapacitated with. There were people outside the door. She could hear them talking. She began struggling with the chains but her arms felt weak, weaker then normal. She began to pull harder grunting from the strain but it wasn't doing any good. She finally gave up and slumped down onto the bench. It looked like a jail cell, but it wasn't. Faith had been in a few in her more youthful days and they weren't as well kept. The door of the room began to open and two people entered. Old man Xander and the blond from before. The blond stayed at the door with a cold expression on his face. Xander moved forward.

"Why did you do it Faith? Why did you come back?"

She shifted. "I told you. Payback. Besides I had to get you guys off my case."

Xander gave a sage like nod. "I told you before that you weren't a prisoner." Faith raised her chained hands and raised an eyebrow." Well, now you kind of are. You did almost choke me to death…again, and beat Alex to a bloody pulp."

"He'll live," Faith shrugged averting her eyes to avoid Xander's

"Yes, he will live. Which is why I'm here talking to you instead of turning you over to the authorities. You could have killed him, easily; and finished me off; and been out of here long before Grant showed up. Why didn't you?"

Faith said nothing.

"From what Both Alex and Grant have told me about the "incident". I think you didn't intend on killing anyone. You're hurting and confused and you wanted to make someone else feel that hurt and confusion."

"Listen," Faith interrupted. "The whole, chain me up and psychoanalyze me thing has been done before, so if you're not going to let me out of these chains then at least spare me the talk about the dangers of the dark side."

Xander nodded again. "The chains, right. Those do look pretty uncomfortable. Grant, unlock them."

Faith wasn't sure if she had heard him right until the blond kid came over and unlocked them. "Wow Xand. I knew you were never the brightest Scooby but I thought you had more sense then that." She quickly brought her leg up to kick the guy in the face but he easily caught her leg and forced her back onto the bench. She got back up and tried a three punch combo to his face but he dodged all three of her attempts and again grabbed her and forced her back onto the bench.

"What did you do to me?" Faith asked, a little scared of the answer.

"You have been injected with a substance that in effect takes away your slayer abilities, don't worry. The effects only last for about a day. I figured you would be easier to talk to this way." Xander answered.

Faith remembered Buffy telling her something about a test the council made her take where they had done this to her. Of course Buffy had been able to pass the test, save her mom, and slay some bad-ass vampire all without her slayer powers. Faith wondered if she would be able to last a day without hers. Faith drew her legs up to her chest on the bench and wrapped her arms around her. All of a sudden she felt very cold.

"Faith, I think it is possible that you can be helped. I know the circumstances are crap and I apologize for that, but you can do some real good here. Your past can be left In the past, no Buffy, no vampires with souls, no Mayor'",

"What if I don't agree to play along huh? "

Xander sighed. "There are a couple of other options. Option number one is that we let you go. We give you enough money to start off fresh somewhere else and keep you under mild surveillance. Just to make sure you stay out of trouble, the catch to that though is that we couldn't just let you walk around with slayer powers. It would be irresponsible. We'd have to inject you with another compound, similar to the one you're on now, only with more permanent effects. Option number two is less fun, if you continue on the path you're on now, killing, and getting in touch with your villaner side. We'd be forced to strip you of your powers and turn you over to the authorities. We have all the tools necessary to give you a new life Faith. It's your call how what you want to do with it."

"And if I do stay? What's in it for me?"

"If you agree to help us, then you would stay here. Not here in this room. You would get a room of your own. All your needs would be met. You would have access to our entire staff, maid, cook, everything. You would also have to be retrained, and you would patrol, with backup. But otherwise you would have free reign to do pretty much whatever you wanted."

"Except illegal stuff." The boy offered, speaking for the first time.

"Right, nothing illegal." Xander amended,

"Sounds fair enough, but first you have to answer me one more question."

Xander nodded

"Why me? Why not some other slayer or Buffy?"

"I've known a lot of slayers Faith. Some better then you, some better then even Buffy. Smarter or better fighters. But they all had something, that tied them to their lives . Family, friends, their watchers, but not you Faith. You don't have those things and that is what made you perfect. Imagine if I brought Buffy here and gave her the same offer. She wouldn't be able to function Everyone she knew and cared about is dead, except for 2 people, and we wouldn't exactly be able to hang with her and make sure she adjusts,. I couldn't do that to her, not again. Secondly we needed to have a blood sample and yours was available. It was lucky or maybe fate.

Faith was silent

"You don't have to make up your mind right now. We'll talk again tomorrow; it has been a long night for everyone Grant will bring you some blankets so you can get more comfortable. goodnight Faith." Xander said and exited the room Grant followed behind him. A little while later Grant came back with sleep stuff for her. He was about to leave but then turned around. "For what it's worth I hope you stay. We really need you" he exited the room and she heard the door lock behind him

Faith wrapped herself in the blankets and was put off by how soft they were. She moved around the tiny room and looked out the barred window. It was quite a view; she could see what looked like a cityscape in the distance but up close she saw the back of the house, and a pool. She realized something and for some reason it struck her a very funny. She was locked in a pool house; she didn't think she had ever even been in one before. She moved to the floor and made herself comfortable which wasn't very hard. As she felt herself drifting off to sleep quickly she had one final thought. [It has been one hell of a day


End file.
